Infographic: The Spooky Truth of Obama vs. Romney Online

This infographic shows off some great design skills and a whole lot of insight into what goes on in a presidential campaign. The red and blue color coding works perfectly for keeping the candidates’ relative statistics distinct, and the wide variety of points of comparison works through a complete set of data. I wish there was a conclusion or summary statement of some sort, though, instead of just ending on the piece of info that happened to be the last.

I really enjoy the illustration throughout, and it helps break up the text. I do feel that each component of the IG could be explained in fewer words, though. It’s also inconsistent whether the data viz is explained before or after the data is displayed, so I get a little lost trying to connect the explanations to the graphics sometimes. The best example is for Organic Search Results: the explanation is below the search results, but above the key for color coding, and is in its own bar across the IG with its own shade of grey. To me that read as a section separation rather than a unifying element, so it took a second to line everything up.

As endearing as all the illustrations are (I really love to see infographics that take big risks with lots of visual interest), I read through the IG a few times and don’t really think the “spooky” theme fits. There’s nothing that ominous about the data itself; it isn’t revealing dark secrets about the candidates or making scary predictions. It feels a bit like the theme was chosen just for the IG to be released around Halloween, rather than it being related to the information. I wish it had been tied in a bit more closely, which would have driven up the humor factor for the IG too.

In all I’d give this infographic a B. A little bit of work on organization and a clearer sense of theme would help this out a lot!